Finally, finally there's been some recent news on Rockstar and Bondi Team's ambitious L.A. Noire. It's about time. The game's been as much of a McGuffin as the Maltese Falcon since it's non-playable debut hit the web three years ago. Rather than taking the usual breadcrumbs approach to information release, though, Rockstar has subsisted us with absolutely nothing. Debuting the game, they collectively said, "Well, here's L.A. Noire. As you can see, it's an interactive, stylized, open-ended post-war murder mystery game. Here's a trailer. You'll just have to take our word for it that it exists and is actually a game."

And take their word, we did. Since then all queries on the game have basically gone something like this: (Rockstar) "Hello? Yes, it's a game. Yes. Yes, it's real. No, we won't show it to you. No. No, we can't let you play it, either. And you can't know when it's coming out. No. Very well. Good-bye." (click).

It seems that period may finally be drawing to a close. Although no official announcement has been made, Bondi Team made an announcement in September that development was coming along "swimmingly," and to expect an announcement on the game sometime in the early half of 2010. Hopefully it'll include news of a black and white filter with emphasized chiascuro lighting.

1. Aliens: Colonial Marines (PS3, Xbox 360)

It seems like a veteran FPS developer like Gearbox doing a game based on the Aliens films would be a no brainer, but development has been a rocky process for this one (which may even look better than Rebellion's impressively gruesome Aliens vs. Predator title). The game was delayed about a year ago, following an announcement that AvP would be the first Sega-published Aliens game out the door in 2010. Luckily, Gearbox president Randy Pitchford says the game is still very much in development and despite problems getting a firm release date has not been cancelled. The status on Gearbox's website is the dreaded "TBA," and Pitchford hasn't said much since on the project since Summer, we should probably expect to hear something about the game sometime after AvP launches in Q1 2010.